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Shandra froze, staring the direction the shriek had sounded. As one, the spectators moved that direction. Shandra followed with Ryan on her heels. When the crowd became too compacted, Ryan stepped in front of her, clearing a path.
She stopped cold as the four people she’d tapped in her dance trance appeared in front of her.
Logan had Duke by the arm. A bloody antler-handled knife lay on the ground between those two and Wendy and Tripp. Pim stood to the side, staring at Tripp. Her eyes were wide and filled with concern. She clearly still loved him. What kind of hold did this young man have over women? Nelly had wanted him to go to Spokane with her, Pim still loved him, and Wendy defied her mother to remain with him.
Wendy had her hand pressed to Tripp’s side. Blood oozed through her fingers, dripping onto her buckskin dress and Tripp’s jeans.
“Call nine-one-one,” Ryan said, standing over the knife.
Shandra moved to Wendy’s side. “He can’t be too hurt, he’s still standing.”
Tripp gave her a half smile, but his color was draining.
“Get Tripp something to sit on!” Ryan shouted.
Shandra eased him onto the bale of hay that Coop brought over. Wendy sank to his side, her hand still on the bleeding wound.
Logan put Duke’s arms behind his back and pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his pocket.
“Were you expecting trouble?” Ryan asked.
Logan grinned. “When there is celebrating, someone always gets out of control.” He glanced around and motioned to two men. “Take him about thirty yards over there and don’t let him get away.”
The two nodded.
“I didn’t do anything. This is police harassment!” Duke hollered as the two dragged him away from the rest of the people involved.
Shandra didn’t move when Logan crouched in front of Tripp. “You okay to answer a few questions?”
The younger man nodded.
“Did you see who knifed you?” Logan asked, nodding to the bloody weapon on the ground at Ryan’s feet.
Glancing from the knife to Ryan’s face, she noticed he was keeping an eye on Pim, who had two men standing on either side of her. She wondered when Logan had given the order for that to happen. Shandra shifted her attention back to Tripp.
He shook his head. “Didn’t see anything. Wendy and I were talking at the edge of the crowd. I felt something shove into my side. I put a hand over it and spotted the knife on the ground. Wendy screamed, and everyone showed up.” He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath.
Logan studied Wendy. “Did you see anything?”
Her cousin’s gaze flashed to Pim, then the direction Duke had been led and continued to shout, before returning to Logan. “My back was to whoever did it. I can’t be certain.”
Logan stood and did a slow spin. “Anyone here see anything that will help us find out who stabbed young Tripp?”
Pim stepped forward. “It was Duke. I saw him with the knife earlier.”
Shandra felt Wendy snap her head around and peer at the young woman. When her cousin noticed she’d caught Shandra’s attention, she dropped her gaze to where her hand rested on Tripp.
Something was off. Shandra felt the tension between Wendy and Pim. The animosity practically crackled in the air, yet, Wendy kept quiet about something she knew about Pim.
“Why would Duke want to knife Tripp?” Logan asked Pim.
She shrugged.
Andy ran up to Logan, holding out a pack that looked a lot like Ryan’s forensic pack.
“Thanks.” Logan pulled out two pairs of latex gloves. He handed a set to Ryan and tugged a set on his hands.
When Ryan had his gloves on, he picked up the knife, studied it without touching any area that might have picked up prints, and settled it into the paper bag Logan opened toward him.
Shandra could tell, Ryan had found something interesting about the knife.
Andy and Coop now stood behind her. Shandra turned to Andy. “Is there an ambulance coming?”
He nodded. “But it would be quicker to load him into a truck and haul him to the county road.”
She had wondered about that. With all the cars parked everywhere, there wasn’t a clear path for an ambulance to get close. “Logan, should Andy and Coop take Tripp down to the county road so the ambulance can pick him up?”
The policeman glanced her direction. “When I’ve finished questioning them.”
She nodded, realizing it was the first time the man had used an authoritative tone with her. Had she overstepped her concern for Tripp or did he feel she was butting into his investigation? She glanced at Ryan, but he was conferring with Logan.
The large Tribal Policeman nodded and headed over to Duke with Ryan on his heels.
Shandra shifted her attention to Tripp and her cousin. “Why wasn’t Tripp drumming?”
“The song only needed one drummer.” Wendy peered into Tripp’s eyes.
He nodded. “We walked over here where it was quieter just to talk.” He glanced over Wendy’s shoulder toward Pim who stared at the two.
The other young woman had steeled her expression. The love Shandra had witnessed earlier no longer burned in her eyes. Had Pim knifed a young man she loved to put blame on the drug dealer who killed her first love? A headache was coming on. It could be from the heat, the daydream as she danced, the tangled web these people were all a part of, or all of it.
Velma arrived. “Wendy, get up from there.” She grabbed her daughter’s arm.
“Velma, no. She’s stopping the bleeding,” Shandra said, easing Velma away from the two.
Her aunt glared at Tripp. “This is what I feared when Wendy started dating you.”
“Tripp didn’t ask to be knifed,” Shandra said, drawing her aunt’s attention from the two young people.
“Maybe not, but trouble follows him. A cloud shrouds his life. I don’t want that for my daughter.” Velma glared at Shandra. “Why do you stick up for him? He could have killed Nelly.”
“If that’s what Logan finds, then we’ll treat him accordingly, but for now he is innocent.” Shandra led Velma further away from the people involved in the stabbing. “What can you tell me about Pim and Tripp’s past?”
Velma studied her. “Why? Do you think they are in this together?” The woman’s gaze drifted back and forth between the two Shandra had mentioned.
“It was a look Pim gave him. As if she still loved him.”
Velma snorted. “She could do better than the likes of him. Just like my Wendy.”
“When were they together? Before or after Wesley Tibble died?” Shandra asked.
Her aunt stared at her. “Wesley Tibble? He died in an accident about three years ago. Why would you want to know about him?”
“Was that before or after Pim says Nelly took Tripp away from her?” Shandra wanted to get the timeline straight in her head. This small group of young people switched partners as much as characters on a soap opera.
“It would have been after Tripp dumped her for Nelly.” Velma studied her closely. “You think Pim killed Nelly out of jealousy and tried to kill Tripp?” Her face froze in horror seconds before her eyes became glowing orbs of anger. “Wendy is in danger if she stays with Tripp.” The woman took one step and Shandra grabbed her arm.
“I don’t think Wendy is in danger. She and Pim appear to have animosity but they also seem together in something.” Shandra studied the two. Wendy still sat beside Tripp. Pim stood with her arms crossed, glaring at Ryan and Logan questioning Duke.
~*~
“Why did you come here tonight?” Ryan asked the drug dealer. He wished it was his collar, then he could take the man in for questioning. But this wasn’t his jurisdiction. Logan was being nice allowing him to ask questions.
“I was invited.” Duke had feverishly stated he’d never seen that knife before in his life when Logan asked him about it.
“By who?” Ryan found it hard to believe anyone in Shandra’s immediate family would have invited the man.
Duke sneered. “Andy Elwood.”
Ryan shook his head. “I know better than that. Try again.” While he was pretty sure Andy didn’t have anything to do with drugs and wouldn’t have invited this man, he was a cop and suspicious of everyone.
“Don’t believe me? Ask him.” Duke stood as insolent as he could with his wrists handcuffed behind him.
Ryan glanced at Logan.
“I’ll print him and swab for blood residue while you ask Andy,” the big policeman said.
Reluctant to get Shandra upset, Ryan wandered over to where Coop, Sandy, and Andy stood. Pretty sure the drug dealer was lying, Ryan faced Andy. “Did you invite Duke here?”
The young man’s face drained of color. His gaze flicked to his older brother.
“Are you working for that scum?” Coop stepped toward Andy.
“No! I invited him because I knew Ryan and Shandra were interested in him for killing Nelly. She doesn’t have many people who even care she died, but I wanted to make sure her killer is caught.” Andy shoved his chest toward his brother as if he expected a fight.
“Chill. I know you and Nelly were friends.” Coop faced Ryan. “I believe Andy thought he was helping you find Nelly’s killer.”
Ryan shook his head and addressed Andy. “Did you tell anyone you’d invited Duke here?”
He shook his head. “I was surprised that he actually came.”
Velma’s voice rose. Ryan saw anger on the woman’s face and Shandra holding her back. He wondered what they were talking about, but knew he needed to relay what he’d just learned to Logan.
The big officer was talking to Pim. Ryan strolled up as Logan asked, “Why did you come tonight?”
Pim shot a glance toward Wendy and Tripp before dropping her gaze to her feet. “Everyone is welcome at a celebration dance.”
“This is true. But why did you come? I don’t believe it was to dance in celebration.” He tipped his head. “Or was it?”
Her chin came up, and she glared into his face. “What would I be celebrating?”
“Perhaps killing someone you were jealous of?” Logan said in a soft voice.
Ryan had different tactics for questioning, but the big man’s soft easy manner seemed to work.
“I’ll admit, I didn’t like Nelly. Not many women on this reservation did. Have I wished her dead a thousand times? Yes.” She continued to look Logan in the eyes.
Ryan moved up beside the officer. “Because she took Tripp from you or because she cost Wesley his life?”
Her whole body jerked, and she stared at him. “What do you know about Wesley?”
“Enough to know that you could have been harboring resentment and working your way up into getting revenge.” Ryan didn’t miss the flicker of anger in her eyes. His money was on this woman as the murderer and attempted murderer. The depth of her rage could very well propel her to pick up a knife and use it.
“Revenge won’t bring Wesley back,” she said and turned her attention to Logan. “May I go? I didn’t see anything. I had come back here to get a breath of fresh air when Wendy screamed.”
Logan let out a long, sigh. “You may go.”
Ryan knew they had nothing at this time to hold her. He nodded his head toward Duke. “You taking him in for more questioning?”
“That depends. Did he get an invitation from Andy?” Logan glanced over Ryan’s shoulder to where the brothers and Sandy stood.
Ryan hated to admit it. “Yeah. He knew Shandra and I had gone to the casino to talk to Duke and thought if he invited him here, we’d be able to see if he was acting suspicious.”
Logan shook his head. “Now I have to let him go. He wasn’t crashing so he had a legitimate reason to be here.”
“Did you ever discover where he was when Nelly was stabbed?” Ryan asked. If Duke didn’t have an alibi, he could be held on suspicion.
“I checked in on that and the employees at the casino. The security guard and his body guard both swear Duke was in the casino at the time of the murder. And both have previous records which makes me leery of their statements, but I haven’t found anything to the contrary.” Logan frowned.
“I was afraid of that,” Ryan said.
Logan walked over to Duke and took the handcuffs off. “You may have been invited, but I’m asking you to leave. Now.”
Duke shot a shit-eating grin at Ryan and disappeared through the crowd.
“Let’s talk to the lovebirds again,” Logan said, walking by Ryan toward Wendy and Tripp.
Ryan guessed the other man had noticed the little tells on both of them when they’d answered his first questions. The only problem was Velma stood behind her daughter, glaring at both of them.
“Velma, would you please step away while we ask these two a couple more questions?” Logan said it as if giving the woman a chance, but he took her by the arm and escorted her over to the Elwood boys, Sandy, and Shandra.
When Logan returned, he knelt on one knee in front of the two. “Can either of you give me a name of who would want to hurt Tripp?”
“When will an ambulance get here?” Wendy asked.
“I’m sure it is sitting at the end of the lane waiting for us to bring Tripp out.” Logan put a hand on Wendy’s shoulder.
“Tripp can you think of anyone lately that you’ve been in a quarrel with?”
The young man glanced at Wendy and said, “Nelly, but she’s dead.”
“No one else?” Logan probed.
Tripp shook his head.
“Wendy, can you think of anyone?” Logan removed his hand from her shoulder.
Ryan noticed she scanned the area, saw her mother was out of hearing, and said, “No one that Tripp has quarreled with, but Pim was glaring at me all night and she told me once if she couldn’t have Tripp no one else could.”
“Why didn’t you say this before?” Ryan asked.
“I didn’t want her to hear me. She might get madder.” Wendy leaned her head on Tripp’s shoulder.
Ryan opened the bag with the knife in it. “Have you seen this before?”
Her eyes widened and she leaned back, gawking at Tripp. “That’s the knife I gave you for your birthday.”
“It was in my truck,” Tripp said. “Under the seat in a sheath I’d made for it.” The confusion on his face couldn’t have been faked. “I was stuck with my own knife?”
Logan jumped in. “Who knows about the knife and where you keep it?”
Tripp winced while drawing in a deep breath. “Anyone I’ve talked to.” He glanced at Wendy. “I’m proud of her work and like to show it off.”
“Anyone here at the celebration?” Logan asked.
“About a dozen different people.” Tripp’s eyelids started drooping.
“Andy, Coop, take Tripp out to the ambulance.” Logan stood and motioned for Ryan to follow him.
“What do you make of this?” he asked.
Ryan glanced at Tripp being helped to a pickup. Wendy walked behind them and Shandra held onto Velma. “There are people here who know more than they’re saying. What did you see Duke doing before the stabbing?”
“He talked with people we’ve suspected dealt in drugs, flirted with a couple of the younger women, and moved through the crowd as if searching for someone.”
“Did he ever go near the Elwoods and Fawn?” Ryan found it curious if the man was the father, that he didn’t have any interest in the child. Someone had been making that payment once a month to the Binghams.
“He didn’t go near them. It wasn’t as if he avoided them, but he clearly didn’t go that direction.” Logan nodded to Shandra and Velma. “You better go save Shandra.”
“Let me know if you learn anything else.” Ryan walked over to the two women. He could see that Shandra was having a hard time with Velma.
“Does this mean the celebrating is over?” he asked the older woman.
“It is. I hope this isn’t a sign about your wedding.” Velma stormed off in the direction her daughter had gone.